These terms and conditions apply to your Prepaid Card. You must read them carefully.
In these terms and conditions "Prepaid Card" means the Currencies Direct Prepaid MasterCard® which has been issued to you or to your Organisation for your use, and any additional, secondary or companion cards issued to you or your Organisation.
"Denominated Currency" means pounds sterling, Euros, or US Dollars, depending on the denomination of the Prepaid Card.
"Organisation" means your organisation or employer as applicable where they have applied for a Prepaid Card for use by you.
"Lost or Stolen Card Contact Number" means our standard telephone numbers below, or for our text service 60777 from your registered mobile or +44 7786 200 690 from outside the UK.
"You" means the named Prepaid Card holder and the authorised user of the Prepaid Card and any additional, secondary or companion Prepaid Cardholders.
"We", "us" or "our" means Newcastle Building Society, Currencies Direct or CorporatePay acting on its behalf in its capacity as Co Brand Partner.
"Website" means our website at www.currenciesdirectcard.com
You can download a copy of these Terms and Conditions at any time from our Website.
"Contact Details": if there is anything you do not understand or agree with please contact us using our Contact Details:
You can use the Prepaid Card at any location that displays the MasterCard® acceptance mark, including shops, restaurants, online, or on the telephone. You can also use your Prepaid Card overseas and if you do, you should notify us in advance of your travel. Before using the Prepaid Card you need to make sure there are enough funds loaded on it. You will not be able to use your Prepaid Card after its expiry date.
Your Prepaid Card is not a credit card and is not in any way connected to your bank account. You will not earn any interest on any funds loaded on your Prepaid Card.
To apply for our Prepaid Card you must be at least 18 years old and a UK resident and be a Currencies Direct customer. We may ask to see the evidence you or your Organisation hold to evidence who you are and your address. We may ask documentary evidence to prove this and/or we may carry out checks on you electronically. Such evidence may be provided on your behalf by your Organization.
In performing these checks personal information provided by you may be disclosed to a registered Credit Reference Agency who may keep a record of that information. You can rest assured that this is done only to confirm your identity, that a credit check is not performed and that your credit rating will be unaffected.
You must sign the signature strip on the back of the Prepaid Card as soon as it is received. Please refer to the "Loading your Prepaid Card" section below.
Funds can be loaded to your Prepaid Card by you or your Organisation as applicable.
Limits apply to the number of times your Prepaid Card may be loaded in a day and certain minimum and maximum load limits apply, such limits are detailed in Section 12. We reserve the right to refuse to accept any particular loading transaction.
Upon receipt, your funds will be available for use without delay. Funds loaded via standard bank transfers may take up to 3-5 days to clear.
Your Organisation may also load funds onto your Prepaid Card real time if we have given them the necessary authority levels to do this.
A Load Fee may apply for certain load methods, please see Fees section below..
You can use Prepaid Card worldwide at over 28.5 million outlets which display the MasterCard Acceptance Mark, as well as over the telephone and online, as long as you have sufficient funds on your Prepaid Card. Cash can be accessed 24/7 at over 1.5 million ATMs wherever cardholders see the MasterCard Acceptance Mark.
Limits apply to daily cash withdrawal (ATM) transactions, and other limits may be applied to the amount of spend and the number of transactions you can perform for your protection. These limits can be found in Section 12 and on our Website.
Detailed instructions on how to use your Prepaid Card are found on the Website. You will need to follow these instructions when using your Prepaid Card.
All payments made using your Prepaid Card shall be in its Denominated Currency. If you are paying for goods and services in another currency, the amount payable shall be converted at the MasterCard conversion rate at the time they process your transaction, and a Foreign Currency Fee will apply, see Section 12. When loading your Prepaid Card and paying in another currency, the applicable exchange rate will be shown at the time of the transaction
We will deduct the value of your transactions from the balance on your Prepaid Card as soon as they are made. We will also deduct any applicable fees as soon as they become payable by you, see our Fees section below for details of our fees.
The Prepaid Card belongs to us. We may ask you to stop using your Prepaid Card and return it to us or destroy it. We may at anytime suspend, restrict or cancel your Prepaid Card or refuse to issue or replace a Prepaid Card for reasons relating to the following:
If we do this, we will tell you as soon as we can or are permitted to do so after we have taken these steps. We will issue you with a replacement Prepaid Card if after further investigations we believe that such circumstances no longer apply.
Like other payment cards, we cannot guarantee a retailer will accept your Prepaid Card. We may also refuse to pay a transaction:
If we refuse to authorise a transaction, we will, if practicable, tell you why immediately unless it would be unlawful for us to do so. You may correct any information we hold and which may have caused us to refuse a transaction by contacting us using our Contact Details.
Subject to the features of the particular Prepaid Card, the authorisation of a transaction can include authorising any single transaction, a series or recurring transactions (including transactions for an indefinite period) or pre-authorising future transactions of a certain or uncertain amount.
A Prepaid Card transaction will be regarded as authorised by you where you authorise the transaction at the point of sale by following the instructions provided by the merchant or retailer to authorise the transaction, which includes:
Authorisation for a transaction may not be withdrawn (or revoked) by you after the time we have received it. However, the following transactions may be withdrawn if you give notice to the supplier (providing a copy of the notice to us):
We may charge you a fee if a transaction is revoked by you under this condition.
Funds to cover the authorised transactions received by us will be paid over to the merchant acquirer within 3 working days following the receipt by us of the instruction to make payment. A transaction (the payment order) will be received as follows:
If, in relation to other transactions communicated directly to us other than purchases and ATM transactions at the time you ask us to complete the transaction, then the transaction instruction or request will be deemed to have been received by us on the following business day.
You have a legal right to cancel your Prepaid Card up to 14 days after you receive the Prepaid Card without being charged the Redemption Fee – this 14 day period is known as the "Cooling-Off Period". Under these terms and conditions, you also have the right to cancel your Prepaid Card at any time after the 14 day Cooling-Off Period without notice and any funds remaining on your Prepaid Card will be returned to you or your Organisation within 5 working days subject to satisfactory checks being completed.
We may also cancel your agreement for any reason by giving you at least 2 month's notice:
We may also cancel this agreement or suspend your Prepaid Card or account immediately if we believe your Prepaid Card is deliberately being used by you to commit fraud or for other illegal purposes. If we do this we will tell you as soon as we are permitted to do so.
If we cancel your Prepaid Card you must tell us what you want us to do with any unused funds within 3 months of the date we tell you your Prepaid Card is cancelled..
If your Prepaid Card is linked to your Organisation, it will be cancelled if you leave your current employment and you must ensure that the Prepaid Card is returned to your Organisation or destroyed. You must not use the Prepaid Card after you leave your organisation and you will be liable for any funds spent on the Prepaid Card after this time and you agree to pay us for any amount outstanding.
If your Prepaid Card is cancelled, we will immediately block your Prepaid Card so it cannot be used.
You will not be entitled to a refund of money you have already spent on transactions authorised, or pending or any fees for use of the Prepaid Card before the Prepaid Card is cancelled or expires. You can cancel your Prepaid Card by sending an email to us using the "contact us" function on the Website, and confirming that you have destroyed your Prepaid Card.
If you cancel your Prepaid Card, once all transactions and fees have been deducted, we will arrange for any unused funds to be refunded to you, see "Your Rights to Redemption of Funds and Refunding of Transactions on your Prepaid Card" section below for further information. A Redemption Fee may be charged (see Fees section below) unless you have arranged to transfer any unused funds to another Prepaid Card managed by us, or you cancel your Prepaid Card within 14 days of receiving it.
Your Prepaid Card will be valid for the period ending on the date set out on your Prepaid Card. Shortly before expiry of your Prepaid card, we will contact you to ask whether you require a replacement card. If you promptly confirm to us that you wish to receive a replacement card, then subject to receiving acceptable evidence of identity from you, we will issue a replacement card before expiry of your card. When we issue a replacement prepaid card we may charge a fee. Please see section 12 for a summary of fees. If we do not issue you with a replacement Prepaid Card, this agreement will terminate when your Prepaid Card expires.
You should treat your Prepaid Card like cash. If it is lost or stolen, you may lose some or all of your money on your Prepaid Card, in the same way as if you lost cash in your wallet or purse. As a result, you must keep your Prepaid Card safe and not let anyone else use it.
If you are issued with a PIN, you must keep it secret at all times. You should memorise the PIN, destroying the notification and never disclose the PIN or security information to anyone. If you suspect that someone else knows your PIN, you should change it as soon as possible. You can change your PIN to something more memorable at most ATM machines by following the on screen instructions.
We recommend that you check the balance on your Prepaid Card regularly online at the Website. We will provide you with your Prepaid Card balance and a statement of recent transactions either by electronic means or on our secure webpage at any time. Your statement will show:
Your Passcode / Access code is needed to activate your Prepaid Card or access your Prepaid Card details on the Website.
When you are issued with your Passcode/Access code you must immediately memorise it and delete the text or email notification. Do not write it down or share it with anyone.
If you know or suspect that your Prepaid Card is lost or stolen, or that the PIN or password is known to an unauthorised person, or if you think a transaction has been incorrectly executed you must tell us without undue delay by calling us using our Contact Details.
You can also report your Prepaid Card lost or stolen via our Website or via text message 24 hours a day, simply text CARD STOP STOLEN or CARD STOP LOST to our Lost or Stolen Card Contact Number. In addition, you can ask your Organisation to block your Prepaid Card.
If an unauthorised transaction takes place we will immediately refund the amount of the transaction after you notify us of the loss, theft, misappropriation or unauthorised use of your Prepaid Card. However, we will investigate claims before making a refund if there is evidence to suggest that either you have acted fraudulently or that you have deliberately or grossly negligently failed to comply with your obligations in relation to the Prepaid Card.
Your maximum liability for any unauthorised transactions on your Prepaid Card is £50, unless the investigations show that any disputed transaction was authorised by you, or you have acted fraudulently or with gross negligence (for example by failing to keep your Prepaid Card or PIN secure or by failing to notify us and without delay on becoming aware of the loss, theft, misappropriation or unauthorised use of the payment instrument), in which case we will not refund the transaction amount and will charge you a fee of up to £50 for any loss we suffer because of the use of the Prepaid Card.
Provided you have not acted fraudulently we will refund the amount of any transactions which our investigations show are not authorised by you arising after you notify us of the loss, theft, misappropriation or unauthorised use of your Prepaid Card.
We will not be liable for any loss arising from:
From time to time, your ability to use your Prepaid Card may be interrupted, e.g. when we carry out maintenance. If this happens, you or your Organization may be unable to load your Prepaid Card, you may be unable (a) to use your Prepaid Card to pay for purchases or obtain cash from ATMs and/or (b) to obtain information about the funds available in your Prepaid Card and/or about your recent Prepaid Card transactions. We will not be liable for any loss arising from such interruptions.
We are also not liable for:
We reserve the right to charge you for any reasonable costs that we incur in taking action to stop you using this Prepaid Card and to recover any monies owed as a result of your activities.
You have the right to redeem the funds on your prepaid card at any time in whole or in part. To do so, please either send us an e-mail using the "contact us" facility on the Website, or contact us by telephone on 0845 351 0116 or +44 845 351 0116 from outside the UK, requesting redemption and indicating the amount to be redeemed. If you request redemption of all funds on your Prepaid Card, please confirm in writing that you have destroyed your Prepaid Card by cutting it up. When we process your redemption request, we may require you to provide us with documents such as identification so that we may process your request in accordance with legal requirements. We may also charge a redemption fee if one of the following circumstances applies:
Please see section 12 for a summary of fees including redemption fees. We will not redeem the value of the funds on your card to you if your request for redemption of the funds is more than six years after the date of termination or expiry of this agreement.
All refunds will be returned to your Organisation or you on the payment instrument that you used to fund the Prepaid Card. We reserve the right to see proof of your ownership of the payment instrument before transferring the funds to it. To enable us to comply with our legal obligations, we may ask you to provide us with certain information before we can process your refund request. Where the currency of the refund amount is different to the currency of the payment instrument that you used to fund the Prepaid Card we will convert this before we refund you. Please note that exchange rates vary and also contain a buy / sell spread and therefore the exchange rate on any refund you receive will differ from the rate when you loaded onto your Prepaid Card. We will apply our standard rate on the day and will inform you of the exchange rate at the time of the refund.
You may be entitled to claim a refund in relation to transactions where:
We may change these terms by notifying you by e-mail or other agreed means at least 60 days before the change is due to take effect. The notices and up-to-date version of the Prepaid Card terms and conditions will always be available on the Website. You should check the Website regularly for such notices and changes. You will be taken to have accepted the notified change unless you tell us that you do not agree to the change prior to the change being effective.. In that event, we will treat that notice as notification that you wish immediately to terminate. In such circumstances we will refund any balance on the Prepaid Card in accordance with section 10 above and you will not be charged a Refund Fee. We may make immediate changes to the exchange rate used to convert foreign transactions between two currencies as applicable.
We do not charge any fees for checking your on-line balance and transactions. However the following fees do apply:
| The information contained in this table summarises key product features and is not intended to replace any terms and conditions | |
| On Application | |
| Card issue fee | Free |
| Additional card fee | € 6 per card, maximum 1 additional card available |
| Other Initial Fee | None |
| Limits | - Minimum amount of initial load £ 10 or euro equivalent - Maximum initial load € 3,000 - Maximum card balance € 6,000 |
| Usage restrictions | For full details please refer to the Terms & Conditions |
| Ongoing Features | |
| Replacement card fees | € 6.00 per card to replace lost or stolen card |
| Transaction Fees | Free for POS transactions |
| Cash withdrawal Fees | - € 1.25 per ATM withdrawal in EUR - 2.50% of the transaction value for ATM withdrawals in other currencies |
| Service Fees | None |
| Balance Enquiry | - Free for online balance and transaction inquiry - € 0.15 for SMS balance and transaction inquiry or card status change |
| Top-up fees and limits | - Free by bank transfers - Free by debit card - 2.50% of loads by credit card - Maximum single load € 3,000; Maximum daily load € 6,000 |
| Other fees | - € 14 Administration fee; for exceptional requests - € 1 for replacement PIN |
| Closure | |
| Cancellation or Redemption | € 6.00 redemption fee (cancellation of card & redemption of funds) |
| Expiry | Card valid for 3 years |
When you use your Prepaid Card at an ATM, you may also be subject to applicable fees, surcharge rules and regulations of the relevant ATM, or other financial institution or association.
If we decide to increase or impose any new fees, we will tell you by e-mail, text, or post, at least two months before any changes take effect. Authorisation will be requested for all transactions at the time of each transaction. In the unlikely event, for any reason whatsoever, a transaction is completed when there are insufficient funds on the Prepaid Card for that transaction (a "Shortfall"), the Shortfall shall be reimbursed by you unless it is due to an error on the part of the retailer where the Prepaid Card was presented, in this circumstance we may seek the Shortfall from the retailer.
You agree that once we make this Shortfall known to you, we may charge you for the Shortfall amount. We may charge the amount of the shortfall from any other Prepaid Cards that you hold with us, to any other payment method which you may designate at that time, or against any funds which you may subsequently load onto your Prepaid Card or on any additional Prepaid Card ordered by you. Until we are reimbursed the Shortfall amount, we may suspend your Prepaid Card and any additional Prepaid Cards connected to you. In addition, we reserve the right to charge you an Administration Fee for each transaction that you make using your Prepaid Card that results in a Shortfall or increases the Shortfall amount on your Prepaid Card. Alternatively; we may seek to recover any Shortfall directly from your Organisation who requested the Prepaid Card on your behalf.
You must let us know as soon as possible if you change name, address, phone number or e-mail address. If we contact you in relation to your Prepaid Card, for example, to notify you that we have cancelled your Prepaid Card or to send you a refund by cheque, we will use the most recent contact details you have provided to us. Any e-mail to you will be treated as being received as soon as it is sent by us. We will not be liable to you if your contact details have changed and you have not told us.
In purchasing the Prepaid Card and using it, you agree that we can use your personal information in accordance with our Privacy Policy. Our Privacy Policy is set out on our Website, it includes details of the personal information that we collect, how it will be used, and who we pass it to. You can tell us if you don't want to receive any marketing materials from us.
If you have any disputes about purchases made using your Prepaid Card, you should settle these with the person you bought the goods or services from. We are not responsible for the quality, safety, legality or any other aspect of any goods or services purchased with your Prepaid Card. Remember that once you have used your Prepaid Card to make a purchase we cannot stop that transaction.
If you have an enquiry relating to your Prepaid Card, you can call our customer service telephone line using our Contact Details. .Standard BT rates will apply to calls to the 0845 number from a fixed UK BT landline. Call costs from other networks may vary.
The Prepaid Card programme is managed by Currencies Direct as Co-Brand Partner. If you are unhappy in any way with your Prepaid Card or the way it is managed, tell us by contacting us using our Contact Details so we can investigate the circumstances for you.. Details of our complaints procedure can also be obtained on our Website. Any complaints you have will be dealt with quickly and fairly. You may be able to take unresolved complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service at South Quay Plaza, 183 Marsh Wall, London E14 9SR. Telephone: 0845 080 1800 and e-mail: enquiries@financial-ombudsman.org.uk
The Prepaid Card is an electronic money product and although it is a product regulated by the Financial Services Authority, it is not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. No other compensation scheme exists to cover losses claimed in connection with the Prepaid Card. This means that in the unlikely event that Newcastle Building Society becomes insolvent your funds may become valueless and unusable and as a result you may lose your money.
We may assign the benefit and burden of these terms and conditions to another company at any time, on giving you 2 month’s prior notice of this. If we do this, your rights will not be affected.
We may transfer your unused balance to a new Prepaid Card provided by a Prepaid Card issuer other than Newcastle Building Society at any time. Before we do this, we will give you 2 month's notice of the new Prepaid Card arrangements and the new Prepaid Card terms and conditions. Unless you advise us within the 2 month period that you do not want a new Prepaid Card from the new Prepaid Card issuer, you agree that we can automatically transfer the unused balance on your Prepaid Card to a new Prepaid Card provided by the new Prepaid Card issuer.
This Agreement is concluded in English. All communications with you will be in English. These terms and conditions will be governed by English law and English courts will deal with any legal proceedings between us.
As a responsible e-money issuer, Newcastle Building Society ensures that once it has received your funds they are deposited in a secure account, specifically for the purpose of redeeming transactions made by your Prepaid Card. In the event that Newcastle Building Society becomes insolvent funds that you have loaded which have arrived with and been deposited by Newcastle Building Society are protected against the claims made by creditors.
Your Prepaid Card is issued by Newcastle Building Society (NBS) whose principal office is Portland House, New Bridge Street, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, NE1 8AL, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (registered number 156058) as a building society and an issuer of e-money. NBS is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority as an issuer of e-money (registration no. 156058). Your Prepaid Card is the property of Newcastle Building Society and is not transferable to anyone else. Currencies Direct is registered with HM Revenue & Customs (Registration number 12132225) and with the Financial Services Authority (FRN 504360) for the provision of payment services.